Things I learned in a 4 month sabbatical while traveling the world

When I was a kid, my best friend’s sister, Jamarys, had a quote on her door: “In the silence of not doing, when you slowly begin to listen, then anything in life can be your guide“. The quote has stuck with me for a very long time, and after months of listening to the screams of silence, I can attest to that. There’s nothing like a few months alone to get your bearings. You may not figure out everything, but you’ll likely point your ship in the right direction— and that alone is worth the price of admission.

I learned a lot of things in four months of wandering aimlessly. Although not all of them are fit for print, some are. I recommend everyone take an extended period of time off. It can be immensely beneficial, but if you can’t or are just curious about what I took home with me, here are a few things that stuck:

Endless umbrella drinks get old after a week.

Puerto Rico is not a country, and if it is, nobody knows where it is.

Doing nothing gets exhausting after two weeks, but after a month, you build up endurance, after which it’s fucking awesome!

When you don’t spend all day hunched over typing, you can sleep on a rock hard bed every night with no pains whatsoever. (Maybe it’s time to rethink my workstation).

Chinese think all brown people look the same: “Puerto Rico? That’s nice. At least you didn’t join ISIS”. I wish I was making this one up.

Reading is awesome.

The Kindle is the 8th wonder of the world.

Eating fancy food every day is exhilarating.

U.S. politics are a joke.

A world without Amazon Prime is possible, though not as fun.

Smart phones are the 9th wonder of the world.

It’s really hard to run from the internet nowadays.

The U.S. is a very expensive place to live.

The only people that think the U.S. is #1 are people in poor developing countries…and well, Americans. However… I am extremely lucky to have been born in a high income country. Nothing I’ve done in life (hard work, studying, etc) compares to this simple truth. So, stop thinking you’re special, you merely won the ovarian lottery.

After but a few short weeks, life slows down dramatically. It takes you 3 hours to have breakfast, and you start putting things like “buy deodorant” and “have lunch” in your to-do list… just to feel productive.

No matter where you travel, you bring the same old problems with you: so deal with them, sooner rather than later.